Too late to sow Purple Sprouting Broccoli?

[SpadelessAdeParticipant]

Having now planted pretty much all of what I’ve grown from seed, I’ve found I’ve got a fair bit of space left on the allotment, so as I have some seeds left, I wondered whether it’s too late to sow PSB (in seed trays to later go into modules before being planted out)? Do I remember correctly Charles that yours were deliberately sown late-ish, and that kept them a bit shorter? I have always found them top heavy and difficult to keep upright, but have always sown them earlier than this.
Thanks for any thoughts,
Adrienne

[dragonetteMember]

Hello Adrienne

I would say that you are quite early to plant PSB. I planted mine too early last year and I had giant plants as a result, as tall as me (ok 5 feet tall) with huge trunks!

My crop was no better than my friend who planted her in august. Her plants were small but had the same amount of purple sprouting.

My advice would be not to plant too many -or plant different varieties that crop at different time.

There’s lots of brassicas you can plant end of June/July/August: rapa (a kind of broccoli, super fast grower) kale, pak choi, tatsoi (tasty mustard for stir fry), red cabbage, green cabbage, cauli, parley, rocket. You ca also plant beetroots, carrots, peas and beans.

Ness

[charlesModerator]

Nice advice here, but let’s just be clear on use of the words ‘sow’ and ‘plant’: Ness I presume you mean plant when you say plant?! eg four week old plants? Just because I would plant PSB and kale in August but find that too late for sowing it.

And yes Adrienne you certainly can sow PSB now and I am about to myself, it can still grow quite large. There is a slight possibility that April sowings are more frost hardy (Darren’s comment here) but my June sown broccoli gave wonderful harvests this spring and grew big too.

Also you can module-sow swede now for planting after early peas, beans and salad.

[SpadelessAdeParticipant]

Thank you for your help, I’ve sown some today – I hadn’t realised it was OK to do so in June. I’ll look forward to shorter plants that hopefully will be less likely to fall over!
We have got club root on all the plots on this site, but the PSB seems to not be bothered by it thankfully.

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